Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe, on Tourism 2020, we are making quite a bit of progress on a lot of different initiatives. We have just announced the new community tourism coordinator program to advance regional product development and packaging. We are focusing on risk management training, like I just mentioned, in the NWT for tourism operators. We continue to deliver community tours and infrastructure contributions to encourage development of community tourism infrastructure across the Northwest Territories. There are many initiatives under the Tourism 2020 plan, which was there to replace...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think someone asked me this question yesterday, possibly. We invest roughly $5.5 million through grants and contributions and transfers to many tourism initiatives, including NWT tourism, Convention Bureau, Northern Frontier Visitors Centre, and Tourism Product Diversification Program and Tourism 2020. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the last decade has seen our Great Slave Lake fishery hit hard by circumstances well beyond its influence and control. Commercial fishing in our territory has, as a result, declined significantly.

What has not declined is the number of fish in the lake, the quality of this food source, or the proven markets we can use to rebuild our fishery. They offer the opportunity to restore an industry that remains important and vital to our economy and to our territory.

Thanks to changes in our fishery support program, we have seen recent increases to our catch volumes, but there is no silver...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Operating ferries and ice bridges in the Member's area, with a little bit of lower volume of traffic compared to the Providence crossing, which has a high significant volume of traffic, the department has not developed a cost estimate to construct a bridge at the Tsiigehtchic crossing or the Peel. Those would be significant investments. The Deh Cho Bridge cost $200 million. From my recollection, to operate the Louis Cardinal ferry costs over a million dollars a year. You do the math. It is not viable to put a bridge in there at this point.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not quite clear what the Member's referring to as bringing in southern companies for tourism, but I do know that as a government as a whole we put a lot of emphasis on using NWT products and services and we follow our BIP policy and all that as much as we can to offer services. In the Department of ITI we have a Tourism Mentorship program, and maybe that's what the Member's referring to where operators can access this program. It's done through the Canadian Executive Service Organization, and they will match up any potential operators with a mentor and they will...

Yes, we can get that stuff together for the Member, as tourism is wide and broad in the Northwest Territories and each region is represented in different capacities. So we can pull that stuff together for the Member.

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories Energy Strategy will support the transition to a lower carbon economy in the NWT in the transportation, heating, electricity, and industrial sectors by supporting efficiency as well as renewable and alternative energy solutions.

Hearing from NWT residents is an important part of developing our strategy, and we started hosting a series of regional public engagement sessions to inform both the Energy Strategy and the Climate Change Strategic Framework in November. We have already been to Inuvik, Norman Wells, Yellowknife, and Fort Smith, and will go to Fort...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 343-18(2): Small Business Funding Supports." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This is one of the things that was identified in the NWT Economic Strategy when they went around in the last Assembly, and it was identified as an issue. The insurance program was put in place in 2014 through NWT Tourism that leverages buying power of its membership, so they all tend to buy as a cooperative, I believe, and that's still in place. This year ITI is also supporting NWT operators with a number of workshops and initiatives that promote risk management and training safety for the tourism operators, and we are making safety plans as part of our application for tourism licences which...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year ITI invested over $5 million in direct grants and contributions to tourism-related business and initiatives in the NWT. Funding is available to qualified businesses under a number of programs, one of them being the Community Tourism Coordinator program, this one we've just announced that helps communities advance regional product development and packaging. We fund specific marketing arrangements with the NWT Tourism, which helps all the members of NWT Tourism and it allows the regions to market and promote products in their regions and operations. We're always...